Effects of footwear midsole thickness on running biomechanics

Shoe manufacturers launch running shoes with increased (e.g., maximalists) or decreased (e.g., minimalists) midsole thickness and claim that they may prevent running injury. Previous studies tested footwear models with different midsole thicknesses on the market but the shoe construct was not strictly comparable. Therefore, in the present study, we examined the effect of midsole thickness, from 1-mm to 29-mm, in a standard test shoe prototype on the vertical loading rates, footstrike angle and temporal spatial parameters in distance runners. Fifteen male habitual rearfoot strikers were recruited from local running clubs. They were asked to run on an instrumented treadmill in shoes with different midsole thicknesses. We found significant interactions between midsole thickness with vertical loading rates (p < 0.001), footstrike angle (p = 0.013), contact time (p < 0.001), cadence (p = 0.003), and stride length (p = 0.004). Specifically, shoes with thinner midsole (1- and 5-mm) significantly increased the vertical loading rates and shortened the contact time, when compared with thicker midsole shoes (25- and 29-mm). However, we did not observe any substantial differences in the footstrike angle, cadence and stride length between other shod conditions. The present study provides biomechanical data regarding the relationship between full spectrum midsole thicknesses and running biomechanics in a group of rearfoot strikers.     

The use of hydroxyapatite as a new inorganic consolidant for damaged carbonate stones

The feasibility and the effectiveness of using hydroxyapatite (HAP) formed by reacting limestone with a solution of diammonium hydrogen phosphate (DAP) in mild conditions, as a consolidant for carbonate stones were investigated. Firstly, a novel method for predamaging limestone was developed. Then, the effects of DAP solution concentration and reaction duration were evaluated to define the best treatment conditions, and the strengthening effect was evaluated on artificially damaged Indiana Limestone samples. Treated samples exhibit a significant increase in the dynamic elastic modulus and tensile strength, which is attributed to microcrack reduction and pore filling consequent to formation of calcium phosphate phases at grain boundaries, as assessed by SEM/EDS and ESEM/EBSD. Consequent to a slight reduction of coarser pores, as revealed by MIP, the sorptivity of treated samples is only slightly reduced, so that water and water vapor exchanges with the environment are not significantly blocked.     

An Example of the Informative Potential of Polar Coordinate Analysis: Sprint Tactics in Elite 1,500-m Track Events

Polar coordinate analysis is a powerful data reduction technique based on the Zsum statistic, which is calculated from adjusted residuals obtained by lag sequential analysis. Its use has been greatly simplified since the addition of a module in the free software program HOISAN for performing the necessary computations and producing easy-to-interpret results in the form of polar coordinate maps. In this study, we provide a simple and practical example of how this technique can be used to analyze tactical behaviors in sport and physical exercise. We studied 158 performances by 82 male runners in thirteen 1,500-m finals held at the Olympic Games, the World Championships in Athletics, and the European Athletics Championships between 2000 and 2012 to investigate associations between the initiation of sprints by race winners and other runners (focal behaviors) and the lap and zone of the track in which the sprints were initiated (conditional behaviors). The significant prospective/retrospective activating/inhibitory relationships shown in the polar coordinate maps confirm the decision to start a sprint is a tactical one and are consistent with a winning strategy consisting of avoiding giving rivals the benefit of the slipstream while conserving sufficient energy for a final winning burst. Polar coordinate analysis is a powerful technique for studying tactical behaviors in the field of sport.     

“Sharenting,” parent blogging,and the boundaries of the digital self

ABSTRACT

This article asks whether “sharenting” (sharing representations of one’s parenting or children online) is a form of digital self-representation. Drawing on interviews with 17 parent bloggers, we explore how parents define the borders of their digital selves and justify what is their “story to tell.” We find that bloggers grapple with profound ethical dilemmas, as representing their identities as parents inevitably makes public aspects of their children’s lives, introducing risks that they are, paradoxically, responsible for safeguarding against. Parents thus evaluate what to share by juggling multiple obligations—to themselves, their children in the present and imagined into the future, and to their physical and virtual communities. The digital practices of representing the relational self are impeded more than eased by the individualistic notion of identity instantiated by digital platforms, thereby intensifying the ambivalence of both parents and the wider society in judging emerging genres of blogging the self.     

Responding to Hong Kong’s political crisis: moralist activism amongst youth

ABSTRACT

Discourses of morality are prevalent in contemporary Hong Kong youth activism. This paper suggests that this moralist disposition is the product of youth frustrations towards Hong Kong’s political crisis, whereby the power gap between civil society and the government renders the former incapable of exerting substantial influence over the governance of the city. Rather than ascribe the cause of this power imbalance solely to government policies, this paper reveals that civil society also contributed towards the making of this political crisis. By reviewing the citizen-led pro-democracy movement throughout the decades, it is shown that civil society has been ineffective in implementing political reforms because its actors and organisations harbour a political subjectivity that prioritises economic considerations over democratic aspirations, and are thus inclined to compromise with the government to preserve economic stability than to demand for political reforms. As a result, contemporary youth activists describe Hong Kong civil society as “uncaring” and lacking in moral commitment towards realising democratic reforms that will facilitate the development of a just society. Seeking to reconfigure such political attitudes that currently prevail in civil society, youth activists refashion themselves into political actors embodying a form of moral personhood that embraces notions of responsibility and of wanting to do good for the city, to show that another way of being politically engaged in Hong Kong is possible.     

Promoting Gypsy children's behavioural engagement and school success: Evidence from a four‐wave longitudinal study

Low schooling, high non‐attendance and school dropout rates are critical phenomena within disadvantaged groups, especially among the Gypsy community. For example, in the UK, 10%–25% of Gypsy children do not attend school regularly and have significantly higher levels of overall absence from school (percentage of half‐day sessions missed) than pupils from other ethnic groups. In Portugal, available data on Gypsy children is sparse, yet data from one geographic region of the country reports high school failure (45%) and dropout rates (15%) among this population. The present study assessed the efficacy of a four‐year intervention to promote Gypsy children's behavioural engagement and school success. Gypsy communities were contacted and 30 children participating in the four waves were randomly distributed into control and experimental groups. Every school day throughout four years, 16 children in the experimental group were called at home and invited to go to school. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated in four waves (at the end of each of the four school years), assessing behavioural engagement (i.e. school non‐attendance, classroom behaviour) and school achievement (i.e. mathematics achievement, student progression). Findings show the efficacy of the intervention on promoting behaviour engagement and academic success without devaluing Gypsy people's culture.     

A Framework for User Agency during Development of Interactive Risk Visualization Tools

ABSTRACT

Participating in user-centered design provides potential users of interactive risk visualization tools agency in influencing tool development. This article identifies and characterizes pathways for agency that users may experience as they participate in design of interactive tools for visualizing environmental risks. We present an empirically based conceptual framework for better understanding user agency during visualization tool development based on findings from interviews with professional visualization tool developers and discuss practical implications and future research recommendations.     

Publishing in Discipline-Specific Non-Library Journals for Promoting Information Literacy

Academic librarians tend to publish in traditional “library” journals rather than journals directed at other academic disciplines, thereby missing the opportunity to inform and educate a key audience. This article alerts librarians to publishing opportunities in discipline-specific academic journals in the Arts & Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences, both as a means of promoting information literacy (IL) and effecting outreach to faculty. Selection criteria are defined and discussed. The results of the study are presented by discipline in table format with data on each journal including publisher, affiliation, publication frequency, review time, acceptance rate, and ranking indicators.     

Audiences for crime media 1946–91: A historical approach to reception studies

The present paper argues that audience reception studies have tended to be ahistorical, neglecting consideration of the ways in which audiences’ orientation to media may have changed over the decades. The paper explores the potential of combining oral history methods with reception studies, and addresses some of the difficulties which arise. An apparently simple way to introduce a historical perspective is attempted by including audience age as a central part of an empirical research design. By analysing a series of focus group discussions in which people respond to crime media from different points over the postwar period, the concept of age is unpacked in terms of generation and life course factors, and these are shown to influence reception of crime media from both the present and the past. Generation and life course, together with gender, also affect people's positioning in society in relation to real‐world crime, and this too affects the reception of crime media. The paper concludes by suggesting three ways in which audiences may have changed over the postwar period in terms of their interpretive frames for making sense of crime media, namely the frames of personal relevance, realism and moral relativism.